HOUSTON — A registered sex offender was permanently taken off the streets after a jury found him guilty and he was automatically sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Manuel Enrique Arana Jr., 42, was most recently found guilty of continuous sexual assault of a child under the age of 14 but his history includes other convictions for crimes against women.
"Not only was this man a habitual criminal who had been to prison before for sexually assaulting a minor, but he was a registered sex offender," Harris County Kim Ogg said. "He is a predator, and he will now spend the rest of his life in prison."
The trial lasted four days, and during it, jurors heard about how Arana Jr. repeatedly sexually assaulted a girl for over a year starting when she was 7.
"We asked the jurors to 'Believe him when he shows you who he is,' and they did just that. They believed he sexually assaulted yet another child, and for that, we are proud of them," Assistant District Attorney Jayelle Lozoya said.
In 1999, when Arana Jr. was 17, he pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting a 12-year-old girl. He got eight years in prison for that conviction.
When he got out, he failed to register as a sex offender and spent more time in prison for that offense in 2009.
Four years later, in 2013, Arana Jr. pleaded guilty to assaulting a female family member.
